Blog

By Slade Sohmer on January 30, 2013

We, as a society, need to stop cheapening the meaning of words and actions.

We need to stop saying we’ve been “raped” by people and situations that are nothing more than inconveniences. We need to stop charging 17-year-olds who take nude photos of themselves with possession of child porn. We need to stop calling everything racist or sexist or homophobic. Stop taking away importance from real, actual terms that describe real, actual crimes and insults. Cheapening this stuff does a disservice to real, actual problems.

Seen through that prism, is this year’s Volkswagen Super Bowl ad racist like some are claiming? Is a white guy from Minnesota with no worries and a Jamaican accent like “blackface with voices,” as New York Times columnist Charles Blow suggested on CNN? Take a look and decide:

Sure, it’s not as good as the last two years of VW ads. But racist?! Shouts of racism and sexism and homophobia are in the eye of the beholder, and it’s hard to begrudge anyone, because we all have different perspectives. But, in this case, can we just lighten up a little bit?